2003 Casablanca bombings

The 2003 Casablanca bombings occurred on 16 May 2003 in the city of Casablanca, Morocco when twelve Salafia Jihadia suicide bombers from the shanty town of Sidi Moumen attacked multiple targets across the city. A guard at the Cafe de Espana restaurant was stabbed before suicide bombers Tarek, Nabil, and Hamid detonated their bombs inside of the club, killing 20 people (most of them Muslims eating and playing bingo). Next, a guard and porter were killed at Hotel Farah when another bomber hit the venue, and another bomber killed three at a fountain near a Jewish cemetery, having gotten lost. Two attackers blew up a vacant Jewish community center the day before it was due to be packed, and another bomber attacked a Jewish-owned Italian restaurant as another killed two police officers at the Belgian consulate. A total of 33 civilians were killed in the attacks, and two would-be suicide bombers were arrested before they could carry out even more carnage; 2,000 people were arrested across the country due to connections to the attacks. The attacks came just four days after the Riyadh compound bombings, and Saad bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were believed to have been the attacks' masterminds.